ThomasNATION Classic Reviews - Stuck On You
March 20, 2021
Butch The Breakdown Truck has quite an interesting history behind him, doesn't he...making his debut in the fifth season episode 'Horrid Lorry' albeit originally not having a face and only being mentioned by name, this is a character that for the longest time was always seen in the background over the course of the series helping out on the railway during construction or whenever there was an accident to clean up. It wasn't until he was seen by many within the fandom at the grand opening of the Sodor Search & Rescue Center in 'Misty Island Rescue' that many became excited at the possibilities that could come with Butch being a part of the rescue team...and ten years ago during what many fans universally hail as the worst season of the television series, we were given a very big surprise when our breakdown truck finally spoke. In celebration of ten years since the infamous fifteenth season that finally gave him his chance to shine on screen, let's look back at Butch's big break 'cause we're about to get 'Stuck On You'!
STUCK ON YOU: Thomas and Butch do not listen to Victor's instructions, so they do not know how to work Butch's new magnet.
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Season 15 of 'Thomas & Friends' was the first in a long time to feature multi-episode arcs for the series with the first being the 'Logging Loco Rewards' trilogy to kick off the season which proved to be very divisive among the fandom, but then we got a trilogy of episodes where three different engines got their chance at being the rescue engine for the day and it proved to not only be some of the best episodes of the season but also the better of the two trilogies as a whole...and after Edward and James and even Toby got their chances to be a hero, it was finally time for our little blue tank engine to have his turn as we neared the third quarter end of the season.
After a brief introduction from the narrator about how the engines look forward to special jobs, we see Thomas making his way to Knapford Station telling Rosie that Sir Topham Hatt has a special for him and that is to work with Butch as the rescue engine for the day: looking past the fact that this episode unfortunately continued the trend of Rosie only speaking in one episode per season of the Nitrogen Era, I like that we get a brief little re-introduction to Butch as a character for those who either don't remember him or didn't grow up watching the Classic Series...and right before we see Thomas arriving at the Steamworks to meet with Butch, we get a hilarious moment of Sir Topham Hatt taking pleasure in a pastry that he bought from the MC Bunn stand-no wonder why they gave him the affectionate nickname of The Fat Controller for the U.K. dub!
That's right, it is here that we once again begin the infamously overused 'three strikes, you're out' formula that plagued the series for years and what caused many older nostalgic fans to turn them away...while many of the other engines didn't suffer as bad from this writing formula, it was Thomas himself who unfortunately got the worst of it as his episodes would often become the worst of the Nitrogen Era as well as the entire series. In many cases, I would say that you've seen all of Thomas' episodes in the Nitrogen Era if you've seen at least one and skip ahead a bit here to when reality comes to bite Thomas on the bunker due to not listening...but since this is actually my favorite episode of the fifteenth season, I'll try to keep it as brief as I possibly can.
After what is honestly a pointless scene with Thomas and Butch racing past Gordon and James just to fill in the runtime, they finally arrive at the Search And Rescue Centre where Rocky gives them their first emergency call: taking metal poles to Farmer McColl so he can build a new sheep shelter as the old shelter was blown down. But when Butch remembers Victor's instructions about the red light on the magnet while trying to pick up the poles, Thomas tells him not to worry thus Butch ends up crashing his magnet so hard against the poles that he knocks them into the sea next to Captain...who like Rosie was also sadly restricted to only one speaking role per season in the Nitrogen Era. Before Thomas and Butch can go to the yard to get more poles, Rocky has another call: taking a new wheel to Rosie as her old wheel has cracked...and here we go again with the formula's second strike: Butch remembers Victor's orders, Thomas doesn't listen thus Butch causes Rosie's wheel to roll away and crash into Rocky. Okay, moving on!
When Butch thinks there's something wrong with his magnet, Thomas has an idea: seeing if Butch's magnet sticks to him because he is made of metal...and unbeknownst to them, the red light on Butch's magnet suddenly flicks on for some unexplainable reason (trust me, we'll get to that stupidity soon) and rather violently sticks tight to Thomas-did anyone else think the magnet was gonna damage Thomas internally with how quickly it stuck? But of course since neither of them listened to Victor, now they can't perform their rescues...and as much as we would've all loved to see Butch pull Thomas over adding insult to injury for his actions, we instead get a pretty humorous scene of Butch and Thomas making their way to the Steamworks while Gordon and James laugh at them which looks a lot like the engine version of humans taking dogs for a walk.
Even Victor can't help but smile at the sight of Thomas and Butch stuck together when they arrive back at the Steamworks, and after explaining his instructions on the magnet to the pair again, we make what honestly looking back after ten years is a pretty ridiculous discovery that Butch's magnet is apparently voice-activated: but to quote the film Cars 2, which coincidentally came out the same year, 'everything is voice-activated these days'...if Butch's magnet really was voice-activated this whole time, then why didn't Victor say that from the start?! Yeesh...and people say that none of the dialogue in 'Thomas And The Magic Railroad' made no sense! But anyway now that Thomas and Butch are finally free of their sticky situation, they finally get to answering the emergency calls: Farmer McColl gets his metal poles, Rosie gets her new wheel and...even though Thomas shouts the on command for the magnet when they arrive back at the Search And Rescue Center, it somehow doesn't stick to him as the episode ends.
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Let's be honest, people, back when 'Stuck On You' first premiered ten years ago, Butch speaking was one of the biggest things we had ever received in Thomas history and it still is in some ways since I think the plot for this episode was a good idea...but apart from wishing that they did more with the concept of Butch getting stuck to Thomas, a lot of the problems that the Nitrogen Era faced like the infamous 'three strikes, you're out' writing formula and Thomas himself acting like a know-it-all idiot yet again do hold the episode back from being something truly amazing.
With that said however, do I think that the episode itself is bad? Not necessarily...it is true that the typical Nitrogen Era mannerisms do bring it down, but the plot itself is still a good idea and the fact that Butch finally got his first speaking role at all is something worth celebrating and that is why I'm gonna give 'Stuck On You' a rating of a 3.5 out of 5. Red light on, ready for action!
Final Score: 3.5/5
About the Author: True Blue
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